Gwladus Ddu by R. S. Thomas

(from the Welsh of G. J. Williams)

 

It was an old white-friar who wrote

on yellowing parchment amongst tales

of the Welsh princes these words:

‘That year was buried Gwaldus Ddu.’

 

What was it made a brother

in his cell insert this in his story?

Did he taste heaven once in seeing

the sun brighten the darkness of Gwaldus Ddu?

 

And I, too, by my fireside remembered,

seeing Eryri’s cover white as wool,

that seven hundred winters had grizzled it

since summer basked in the hair of Gwladus Ddu.

 

Just now behind the manuscript’s account

of old, bold knights I saw a face

bloodless and unsmiling and the words:

‘That year was buried Gwladus Ddu.’

 

by R. S. Thomas

from No Truce With The Furies (1995)